Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/236

 the Appomattox River, and composed of many miles of fertile champaign and woodland. This new territory he divided into Hundreds. He then built a paling two miles in length from the Appomattox to the Powhatan, shutting in an area of eight English miles, and here in the spring of 1612 he planted corn. Rochdale Hundred was formed by the erection of a pale four miles in length from river to river, and this ensured an additional area of twenty circuit miles in which the live stock could browse in security. At certain intervals along the lines of these pales, houses were put up, the occupants of which formed a guard not only for the population of the Hundreds, but also for the hogs and cattle, many of which had been imported. When Dale came over in the spring of 1611, he had brought with him sixty cows, and in the summer of the same year Sir Thomas Gates had reached the Colony, having, as a part of the cargo of his fleet, one hundred kine and two hundred hogs. The animals were transported in three ships after a model known as the caraval, which was probably used for this purpose in the present instance on account of the room which it afforded above deck, the animals having an abundance of fresh air, and the flooring being kept clean with ease. When the fleet was first sighted as it was making its way up the river, these strange vessels led the people at Jamestown to believe that the Spaniards had appeared in Virginia, and at once a great commotion arose.

It was not until 1612 that the cultivation of tobacco, even in patches of a few plants, began among the